Town centre boost as Newport Indoor Market extends opening days
Town centre business may have been hit hard during the pandemic but traders in an historic Shropshire indoor market are bucking the trend after expansion plans were unveiled.
Newport Indoor Market opened its doors on a Tuesday for the first time in its history this week as part of a trial until Christmas. The new day will compliment its traditional Friday and Saturday openings.
The move has been welcomed by councillors as a positive boost to the town as it looks to attract more visitors.
And councillors urged shoppers to support the traders to ensure the additional opening times are a success.
Newport councillor Peter Scott said: "It has to be seen as a positive thing to do and it now falls on us, as residents, to support the market even more."
"Opening for extra days will only happen if there's a demand and people use the market. If not enough people go in, it would probably just revert back to Friday and Saturday, and we don't want that.
"We want our indoor market to be something that's used as many days as possible if we can and something that can attract more people to the town, so support the indoor market is my message to shoppers!"
Councillor Thomas Janke added: "A lot of businesses have struggled during the pandemic and my colleagues and I are passionate about seeing businesses thrive as much as possible so we are delighted to hear this news.
"Newport is a traditional market town and, when competing with others, we want people to come and enjoy things like the market and the local events."
Most stallholders will be opening from 8am-4pm and a market spokesman said “The Indoor Market remained open during the Covid pandemic and was much appreciated by both long-standing and new customers alike."
"As we come out of the pandemic, shopping habits appear to be changing, with more customers now preferring fresh produce locally grown, rather than that provided by once-a-week shopping.
"The market stallholders have been keen to adjust their opening days to meet these changes and so, for a trial period until Christmas, we are opening each Tuesday as well."
Newport Shropshire Indoor Market Hall was built in 1860 and is a landmark building with entrances located on Stafford Street and St Mary’s Street, via Market Mews.
